If you are concerned about the future of democracy in the world order, read “Autocracy, Inc. , The Dictators Who Want to Run the World” – an alarming new wake-up call by Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum.
My capsule review via key excerpts (10 minutes read):
“Introduction
“Autocracy, Inc.
“Nowadays, autocracies are not run by one bad guy but by sophisticated networks relying of kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security services – military, paramilitary, police – and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda, and disinformation … The propagandists share resources … as well as themes: the degeneracy of democracy, the stability of autocracy, the evil of America. …
“The conviction, common among the most committed autocrats, that the outside world cannot touch them – that the views of other nations don’t matter and that no court of public opinion will ever judge them – is relatively recent … [In 2023], ‘This is not about Ukraine at all, but the world order’, said Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister… The current crisis is a fateful, epoch-making moment in modern history. It reflects the battle over what the world order will look like’.”
“I. The Greed That Binds
“Autocracy is a political system, a way of structuring a society, a means of organizing power… No nation is condemned forever to autocracy, just as no nation is guaranteed democracy… In the late 1980s many Russians … believed their country was on the verge of a historic, positive transformation…
“ ‘From the beginning, Putin and his circle sought to create an authoritarian regime ruled by a close-knit cabal … who used democracy for decoration rather than direction’ … Putin’s Russia … represented something new: a full-blown autocratic kleptocracy, a mafia state built and managed entirely for the purpose of enriching their leaders…
“More complex schemes soon followed. They involved property in Russia, shell companies in Spain, Russian-Finnish joint ventures, German cutouts, and bank accounts in many different countries … Here … [is] an aspect of Putin’s origin story that is mentioned less frequently: the role of the legitimate Western institutions, companies, lawyers, and politicians who enabled his schemes, profited from them or covered them up.”
“II. Controlling the Narrative
“The Chinese regime also cast the net wider, beyond cyberspace, learning to combine online tracking systems with other tools of repression, including security cameras, police inspections and arrests … With every new breakthrough, with every AI advance, China gets closer to its version of the holy grail … ‘Safe city’ technology, surveillance, and AI systems have been sold by Chinese tech behemoth Huawei to Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico, Serbia, South Africa and Turkey …
“Slowly, Chinese and Russian techniques are now converging … experimenting, creating networks, and preparing for future disruptive operations, in the Russian style …
“Putin’s portrayal of Russia as the leader of an alliance of strong, traditional states against weak democracies has nevertheless won some adherents in America …”
“In seeking to create chaos, these new propagandists, like their leaders, will reach for whatever ideology, whatever technology, and whatever emotions might be useful … Only the purpose never changes: Autocracy, Inc., hopes to rewrite the rules of the international system itself.”
“The use of personalized smear campaigns against political opponents is not new … But modern autocratic regimes go one step further, for they need to smear not just their opponents but their ideas. To do so, they often frame their language – words like ‘democracy’, ‘justice’, ‘rule of law’ – not as evidence of a genuine, popular, organic desire for change but as evidence of ‘treason’, ‘foreign links’, and of course foreign money.”
“The more sophisticated autocracies now prepare the legal as well as the propaganda basis for these campaigns in advance, creating traps designed to catch democracy activists even before they gain credibility or popularity…”
“Epilogue: Democrats United[generic, meaning democratic opponents]
“…no single politician, party or country can reform this system alone. Instead, an international coalition will have to change the laws, end secretive practices, and restore transparency to the international financial system … the fight for evidence-based conversations requires broader international coalitions…
“Americans … would do well to remember that our domestic politics have always been connected to, and influenced by, a larger struggle for freedom and the rule of law around the world…
“Democratic media, civic organizations, and politicians need to argue back and make the case for transparency, accountability and liberty – at home and around the world.”
“We can begin to fight back, first, by understanding that we are facing an epidemic of information laundering and by exposing it when we can.”
(last two paragraphs in opposite order in original.)
“There is no liberal world order anymore, and the aspiration to create one no longer seems real. But there are liberal societies open and free countries … They can be destroyed from the outside and from inside, too, by division and demagogues. Or they can be saved. But only if those of us who live in them are willing to make the effort to save them.”
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